Theresa May urges Brits who use nail bars to look for the signs of modern slavery ahead of UN appearance
PM says people must look within their own communities if the horrific abuses are to end as she tries to raise awareness of the issue
THERESA May urges Brits who use nail bars to look for the signs of modern slavery as she tries to raise awareness of the horrific abuses people suffer.
The Prime Minister says we must look within our own communities to help break up the gangs which force others into indentured labour.
She has made defeating slavery one of the key planks of her premiership, and will speak at the UN later today to try and secure a global commitment to clamp down on it worldwide.
Last year she called it "the great human rights issue of our time", and declared a new taskforce would tackle the "sickening and inhuman crimes" with £33million from the foreign aid budget to fund initiatives overseas.
Home Office estimates suggest there are up to 13,000 victims in the UK, with an estimated 45 million victims across the globe.
Speaking to the she said: “People sometimes think, ‘Slavery? That finished centuries ago! It isn’t today’s world’.
“They look around London and see all the positives of a dynamic, prosperous city.
“But hidden underneath are a lot of people who are suffering because slavery, sadly, is never very far from us.”
And she urged people to look around with fresh eyes for signs of slavery in their areas, adding: “If somebody uses a nail bar, for example, they should ask themselves about the people working there.
“Do they always cover their faces? Do they appear to be nervous?
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“Somebody told me how she attended a talk on modern slavery and afterwards thought to herself, ‘There’s a parade of shops near where I live, and I’ve always wondered about the flat above a particular shop’.
“She mentioned her concern to the local police who investigated and, yes, there were people there who were slaves in sexual exploitation.”
She also said she wants to get businesses to check for slave labour and sweatshops in their supply chains.
The PM added: “We have to really say to British companies, be thinking about this: you have a social responsibility to think about the circumstances of those people.”
But her big moment at the United Nations has been overshadowed by the row with her Foreign Secretary over Brexit.
Boris Johnson has denied rumours he is set to quit the Cabinet if his blueprint for the EU was ignored, with the PM set for showdown talks with him this afternoon.